Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 144 Fighting at the Eight Mile Bridge

"kill!"

The loud and high-pitched voice resounded throughout the wilderness.

The sword and shield hand holds the shield in the left and the knife in the right, and begins to move forward slowly.

Behind them are bow and crossbowmen standing in rows, covering the sword and shield handmen to move forward by the ditch.

Because he was afraid of the crossbows of Shen Chen's army, Ren Jun shouted: "Retreat to the crossbows."

"Hurrah!"

The spearmen in the front row retreated immediately.

Then Shen Chenjun's sword and shield hand went down into the ditch smoothly and began to climb up.

But although the ditch is not deep, it is still very laborious to climb up, so the soldiers also took a lot of effort to get over.

Ren Jun saw that the enemy started to reach the other side of the ditch one after another, and he was about to order to return to the camp and stand firm.

Unexpectedly, Xun Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said softly to him: "General, prepare to order an attack."

"attack?"

Ren Jun was surprised: "If you attack now, don't you want to be shot to death by the enemy's crossbow?"

Xun Yu said: "Their crossbowmen can only be on the other side. Once their crossbowmen want to come over, they have to go down the ditch. This is the time for us to attack."

"I understand."

Ren Jun instantly understood what Xun Yu meant.

Shen Chenjun was blocked by a ditch used for field irrigation. Although the ditch was not deep, it was nearly one foot long, and it took a little time to climb up.

His sword and shield fighters in the front row came over, but the crossbowmen in the back row also needed to jump down the ditch and climb up again. Assemble, there is a vacuum period of 2 minutes.

Ordinary generals may not notice this detail. The battlefield changes rapidly. Even if the generals watch all directions and listen to all directions, they may not be able to observe this situation in just one or two minutes.

But Xun Yu keenly observed this and immediately deployed it.

Once Shen Chen is also a general who does not pay attention to such details, it is very likely that he will fall into a short period of danger after his front row swordsmen and halberds pass the ditch. A small number of bows and crossbows and a large group of infantry charging can defeat Shen Chen's army.

However, this detail that Xun Yu paid attention to, Shen Chen, had actually noticed it a long time ago. He is familiar with the art of war, and it has been three years since the Battle of Nanyang. his weakness.

Therefore, after the sword-shieldmen in the front row crossed the river, he immediately shouted: "The sword-shieldmen line up, the spearmen cross the canal, and the crossbowmen are on guard. After the front troops have passed, the crossbowmen will pass in batches one by one."

He actually only has more than 3000 people now, and he commands like a finger, and soon many soldiers follow his orders.

After seeing Shen Chenjun's orderly steps, Xun Yu sighed, "General, retreat slowly."

"Ah."

Ren Jun nodded, and he naturally saw that the enemy's front army had already lined up in front of the ditch, and then pressed forward to make room for the crossbowmen behind.

The crossbowmen went down the ditch in batches, only one or two hundred people went to each wave, and the rest continued to be treated seriously.

You must know that the ditch is only two feet wide, so the two sides of the ditch are actually very close. If he attacks now, the remaining crossbowmen can still shoot upwards and shoot past the sword and shield players and spearmen in the front row. For him It's not worth it.

Therefore, it is better to retreat to the rear camp immediately before the crossbowman on the opposite side has crossed the ditch and the formation has not been set up, and use the wall to hold on.

At that moment, Ren Jun's army began to retreat.

In the distance, Shen Chen frowned slightly. He had already shown his flaws, but it was a pity that Ren Jun was not fooled, and he deserved to be the pillar that could protect Cao Jun's food and grass.

Soon, in more than ten minutes since the start of crossing the ditch, the large army of Shen Chen's army had passed by, and more than a dozen scouts were left behind to guard the horses.People can pass horses, but it is difficult to cross to the other side. After all, not every war horse is like Lu who can leap three feet.

After passing through the ditch, Shen Chen, Gan Ning, Shen Mi, Deng Zhao and other generals all became pawns at this time. Shen Chen and Gan Ning came out in numbers and came to the front of the team, while the enemy retreated into the camp and used the camp to attack. The wall serves as a defense.

The wall of the village is not high, it is built with some stones and soil from the field, and the rear is made of wood as pillars, but there are crenels on the wall for spears to pierce.And outside the wall, there are deer villages, horses and other obstacles laid all over the place.

Once a frontal attack is made, those obstacles can't hurt anyone, but they will hinder the soldiers' charge momentum.Then people used the crenels of the wall to keep stabbing outside, and it was difficult for the crossbowmen to play their role.

This is a way of fighting in ancient times.

Including when encountering cavalry on the grassland or encountering enemies in the wild, props such as front box cars, side box cars, and knife doors are used as temporary city walls to resist.

While not as defensive as a city wall, it will give the defending pawns a huge advantage.

Shen Chen knew that at this point, there was no other way but to attack head-on.

People's camps are here, if you go around and attack Xudu, they can attack behind you.

What's more important is the speed of soldiers. It has been two hours since Yingyin fell, and it is very likely that Li Qiang has got the news.

Luiqiang County is only [-] kilometers away from Xudu, and Xun Yu sent scouts on horseback in the afternoon to send reinforcements to Luiqiang, and there is a high probability that they will arrive tomorrow morning.

If Ren Jun cannot be conquered before tomorrow morning, Shen Chen will be surrounded by a large number of enemy troops.

So he can only choose a quick fight.

At three o'clock in the day, when it was close to dusk, the sky was still very bright.

The long days and short nights in summer in northern my country are very basic geographical knowledge. Generally, it will not be dark until six or seven o’clock in the evening during the day, and it may be as late as eight o’clock in extreme cases.

In the absence of darkness, the war suddenly began.

The soldiers of Huangmenting began to march forward, the front gate of the village was closed tightly, and Ren Jun's army had already made preparations on the fence and the crenels of the fence.

"Fire arrows!"

With a loud shout, when Shen Chen's army was less than ten feet away from Ren Jun's camp, they took the lead in launching the attack, firing all bows and crossbows.

Immediately, the people above the wall and at the crenel crouched down, not daring to look any further.

It's some sort of fire suppression.

Taking advantage of this gap, the infantry in front immediately pressed forward.

The bows and crossbows stopped at this moment, and Ren Jun's Diannong army appeared again. The two sides began to fight around the wall of the village, stabbing each other with halberds and spears at the crenels and walls.

"Throw!"

Ren Jun commanded from the rear.

The soldiers on the wall in front of the village lifted the stones at their feet and carried them to the platform above. The people above took them and smashed them down.

They are not big rocks, only four or five kilograms, but throwing them down hard will still cause damage.

Stones continued to be thrown out, and Shen Chen's army was immediately repelled.

But it's not that they didn't do anything at all. The wall was built with stones and yellow mud and supported with wood. It was not easy to tear down in a short time.

But the gate of the village is made of wood, which can be cut through with an axe. Around the gate of the village, the two sides fell into a fierce scramble.

Shen Chen and Gan Ning went into battle in person. Both of them held shields in their left hands and axes in their right hands, and smashed rocks from them.

But the distance is not very far, and the wall of the village is only one foot three high, about two meters six, if there is no obstacle, the soldiers can even go up by the ladder.

The two rushed all the way to the gate of the village. Many soldiers around were beaten to death by stones and dragged away howling.

"Hurry up, the crossbowman is suppressing."

Shen Chen turned his head and shouted, at this distance, he only needed to raise the crossbow port, so as not to hurt the soldiers on his side.

At that moment, all the crossbows and arrows were fired, suppressing Cao Jun near the gate of the village so that he could not lift his head.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the two led more than a dozen guards to the gate of the village, and began to chop down the gate with an axe. Sawdust flew across the gate. When a hole was cut, spears protruded from it from time to time.

After the crossbow stopped, spears and halberds pierced down the wall above the village, and the surrounding guards counterattacked while defending with shields and halberds.

A guard beside Gan Ning was stabbed to death by an enemy halberd. Originally, he was still cutting down the gate of the village. After the guard fell, there was a gap in defense and almost fell on him. He was furious immediately and picked up the halberd of the guard on the ground. , stretch and pull upward.

The top of Fang Tian's painted halberd is a crescent blade, while the ordinary halberd is somewhat like a dagger, with a cross blade.Gan Ning stabbed upwards with his halberd, the protruding part of the halberd caught the halberd in the opponent's hand, just like fate intertwined, he immediately pulled down the soldiers and their weapons from the wall above.

"Two people, push me up."

At this moment, a small gap suddenly appeared on the wall of the village, Gan Ning had an idea, and immediately had an idea.

Right now, there were two health ladders beside him, and with the handle of the ring knife in his mouth, he stepped on the shoulders of the two, and suddenly climbed to the top of the wall.

There is a step about one meter high inside the two-meter-six wall, called Yuntai.

This cloud platform is used to stand people, and at this moment, there are densely packed soldiers standing above it, fighting with Shen Chen's army below the wall.At the same time, at the crenel below the cloud platform, there were still people poking out from the waist.

At this time, because Gan Ning pulled down Cao Junke who was close to the gate of the village, his position was vacant for a short time, and the surrounding soldiers were entangled with each other on the tense battlefield, but no one went up to fill the gap, which made Gan Ning suddenly Turned over to the wall.

"Quick, there's a Master over there, hurry over."

An officer in the rear noticed someone climbing up from the gate of the village, his face changed in horror, and he immediately ordered the soldiers to encircle and suppress.

However, after Gan Ning came up, he jumped up, jumped onto the cloud platform, slashed left and right, and even grabbed the halberd of a Cao soldier, holding the halberd in his left hand and the knife in his right hand, and killed four or five in an instant like a god of war. people.

The gap between these four or five people was suddenly exposed, and Shen Chen stopped cutting down the gate of the village immediately, and shouted: "Build a ladder, climb up, and support General Gan!"

"Come here."

Shen Tao greeted a personal guard, and the two built a human wall under the wall.

Shen Chen rushed over immediately, and the surrounding soldiers also rushed over, stepping on each other, and easily jumped over the [-]-meter-high fence and onto the platform.

boom!
The sound of landing sounded.

Before Shen Chen could see the surrounding situation clearly, several spears stabbed at the same time.

At this time, Shen Chen hadn't landed stably yet, so he didn't have time to react. After all, his force at this time was at the third or fourth level at most, far from Gan Ning's first-rate.

It was at the moment of crisis that a roar was heard. It turned out that Gan Ning had been fighting nearby. He wanted to fight his way out and open the gate of the village. Unexpectedly, Shen Chen also jumped down, just not far from him.

I saw him sweeping with a long halberd with his left hand, stabbing obliquely with a knife around his right hand, helping to block the three halberds with his left hand, and beating down a cao army with his right hand, and the remaining halberd stabbed at him, which was blocked by the fish scale armor on Shen Chen's body.

There was a stabbing sound, and there was a sudden sound of metal rubbing. While Shen Chen broke out in a cold sweat, he suddenly took two steps forward and slashed at Cao Jun before he attacked with his halberd.

The surrounding Shen Chen troops came down from the wall one after another, and Cao Jun immediately dispersed. Only then did Shen Chen see what was going on behind the wall.

I saw that there was still a circle inside the wall, like a back character, and the whole camp was blocked on the road leading to Xudu, one circle after another, like a nesting doll, which needed to be constantly beaten inside.

Could it be that Ren Jun has been to the Northwest?

Shen Chen was very puzzled. This way of playing is the same as Qionglong, and it is also the way of camping in the northwest of the Qiang people.

But now is not the time for doubts. When everyone opened the gate of the village, more than 3000 soldiers rushed in through the gate. The first wall was still hundreds of meters away from the second wall.

There are a large number of Cao Jun gathered in this area, Ren Jun organized his forces to take back the gate of the village, and the two sides fought desperately around the gate of the village.

However, several waves of attacks organized by Ren Jun were repelled by Shen Chen and Gan Ning. In fact, although he controlled more than 1 Diannong troops, it was not so fast to gather them all in just two hours. The peasant army was widely dispersed.

For example, Zaozhi from Yingyin led a part, and Han Hao, the guard of Yanling, also led a part. Ren Jun was the general of Diannong Zhonglang, the boss of the two of them, and they had more soldiers and horses, but there were only more than 5000 people.

Therefore, the strategy Ren Jun chose was to procrastinate. The distance from Yanling to Xudu was closer, only about [-] kilometers away. The scouts passed by at noon. At the latest, Han Hao might arrive before the appointment.

Soon the soldiers of Shen Chen Army broke through the first camp wall and entered the camp. This was the last hurdle they had to pass. It was easy to bypass them and kill Xudu, but Liu Xie's palace and city in Xudu were comparable. This one is too high, and there are thousands of palace guards guarding it.

Once Ren Jun is blocked by the guards at the palace gate outside Xudu City and Ren Jun attacks from behind, Shen Chenjun will be faced with the dilemma of attacking from front to back, so he can only choose to attack Ren Jun forcefully. Entering Xudu, it is possible to do more things before the arrival of enemy reinforcements.

However, Ren Jun is indeed difficult to deal with. At the beginning, Ren Jun's army came to intercept in groups, and they were hacked down one after another, killing a few small leaders and leaving dozens of corpses. Only then did they realize how serious it was, and retreated every [-] to [-] steps. , slowly arrived in front of the second fence wall, and wanted to slowly retreat into the wall.

At this time, Shen Chen's army was still entering the village one after another. In order to prevent the enemy from using the wall to counterattack again, Shen Chen and Gan Ning took the lead in charging. At this moment, dozens of arrows suddenly shot at them, and the two were caught off guard. Many soldiers fell around.

It turned out that Ren Jun did not have bows and crossbows, but there were not many of them. Most of them were transported to the front line of Guandu. Only his personal guards had hundreds of bows and two to three thousand arrows, and there was no way to consume them continuously.

Don't think that there are not many arrows used in a small-scale war. In fact, an army of 3000 people will usually be equipped with 1 to [-] crossbowmen, and each crossbowman has ten to twenty arrows in their quiver. Feather arrows, so that the number of arrows can reach [-] to [-].

Even with troops like Li Ling with heavy supplies, the number of arrows of 5000 people can reach 50. "Han Shu Li Ling Biography" records: "The Han army withdrew to the south, and before it reached the Khan Mountain, 50 arrows were exhausted in one day."

It can be seen that the consumption of arrows in a battle is very astonishing. Even in this small-scale war with thousands of people, it is common to consume tens of thousands of arrows.

It's just that Ren Jun's arrows are too few, just two or three thousand arrows, can't kill a few people, and can only be deterred at critical moments.

really.

After discovering that the enemy had bows and crossbows, Shen Chen's army did not dare to charge blindly, but began to form a temporary team, regroup, and move on.

As the sky was getting later and later, it was approaching dusk, around six o'clock in the evening, the sun was approaching the west mountain, and the vision was gradually dimming. Shen Chen was so tired that he was panting and sweating profusely.

After walking for a day, it is indeed the end of the battle to attack the enemy's camp that is already heavily defended.

But the good news is that the enemy's combat effectiveness is indeed not very strong. Often, one Huangmenting soldier can beat two Cao troops. Obviously occupying favorable terrain and more people, Cao troops are still easily defeated in close combat.

After all, the Diannong Army is not the first-line elite troops of the Cao Army. They are also busy with farm work on weekdays. The training is two to three times a month, which is far less frequent than the regular army.

And more importantly, lack of oil and water, the strength will be much weaker, unlike Huangmenting soldiers who are guaranteed sufficient oil, water and protein. If you compete for strength, one Huangmenting soldier may even be able to beat two or three Diannong troops.

"kill!"

Shen Chen held up the weapon in his hand and strenuously moved forward again.

"kill!"

The soldiers of Huangmenting dragged their exhausted bodies, and also fought towards the enemy camp without hesitation.

Ren Jun's face was very ugly.

In fact, there are only three circles in his back-shaped camp, especially the outer wall with the highest defense.

As a result, in less than a quarter of an hour, they broke through the outer perimeter, killing and injuring hundreds of people under their command. If this continues, all three layers of camps will be destroyed, and it is only a matter of time.

It is difficult to defeat the opponent even if they defend the camp. Even if they evacuate by themselves and then rejoin Han Hao, if they meet the opponent head-on in the wild, they will definitely lose.

So he could only grit his teeth and shouted: "Hold on!"

"Huh!"

Although Cao Jun's combat effectiveness is not strong, he still has some morale.

Because the front is the Bali Bridge, which is where the Qingni River is. It is rumored that Guan Yu bid farewell to Cao Cao from this bridge and went south to join Liu Bei.

And after passing the camp, cross the Bali Bridge, and only need to walk another four or five miles to reach the outside of Xudu City.

Even through the jungle behind the camp, or standing on the vast field to the south, you can see Xudu's house.

So for Cao Jun, since Xu Du is behind them, they also have nowhere to retreat.

(End of this chapter)